You have to have a pretty rough life if you're unskilled and go to a crowded island looking for work where the government's immigration policies explicitly state that they don't want you there.I guess it's also a pretty tough life when you're explicitly told that you're too old and a heavy burden to the country for which you spent the past 60 or 70 years as a contributor.

I guess what I'm saying is that I was taught via popular cinema that Asian cultures, including Japanese culture, are about respecting one another and in particular our elders. But now I don't know what to believe.

mbillips:TFA fails to explore the effect that automation is having, and will have, on productivity. You don't need as many workers per dependent if the worker is 10 times as productive because of robots.

I'm sure the rest of the world will be watching closely as the people and their government carry the responsibility of that aging population while corporations walk away with the profit of a 10x productive worker and free of any consequence.

Nana's Vibrator:You have to have a pretty rough life if you're unskilled and go to a crowded island looking for work where the government's immigration policies explicitly state that they don't want you there.

Newsflash: they'd make a lot more money in Japan even doing menial jobs than they would back home.

I've been very interested in watching Japan in regard to this. They seem to the the only modern country that are trying to solve the issue while maintaining their country instead of simply importing the third world.There has to be an answer that isn't simply "breed and breed until the resources are gone and everyone dies".

Arkanaut:Nana's Vibrator: You have to have a pretty rough life if you're unskilled and go to a crowded island looking for work where the government's immigration policies explicitly state that they don't want you there.

Newsflash: they'd make a lot more money in Japan even doing menial jobs than they would back home.

The point there is that it would seem they (unskilled labor) could go somewhere else with less resistance - such as the US - and get an equivalent wage and not have a government policy tell them they're big jerks for even wanting to be there.

Nana's Vibrator:Arkanaut: Nana's Vibrator: You have to have a pretty rough life if you're unskilled and go to a crowded island looking for work where the government's immigration policies explicitly state that they don't want you there.

Newsflash: they'd make a lot more money in Japan even doing menial jobs than they would back home.

The point there is that it would seem they (unskilled labor) could go somewhere else with less resistance - such as the US - and get an equivalent wage and not have a government policy tell them they're big jerks for even wanting to be there.

Possibly, but that's assuming the travel costs don't make a difference. Also, there's the possibility that they just wanted to go to Japan specifically. Maybe they've heard about their delightful game shows?

mbillips:TFA fails to explore the effect that automation is having, and will have, on productivity. You don't need as many workers per dependent if the worker is 10 times as productive because of robots.

Except you have half a dozen workers who lose their job and become "dependent" for each technician that remains because robots replaced them.

I'm curious if anyone ever did an analysis of how to sustain economically a heavily automated society, presuming scarcity is still in effect.

Some people suspect that's one reason the US unemployment is taking its sweet time at shrinking.

Eps05:mbillips: TFA fails to explore the effect that automation is having, and will have, on productivity. You don't need as many workers per dependent if the worker is 10 times as productive because of robots.

Except you have half a dozen workers who lose their job and become "dependent" for each technician that remains because robots replaced them.

I'm curious if anyone ever did an analysis of how to sustain economically a heavily automated society, presuming scarcity is still in effect.

Some people suspect that's one reason the US unemployment is taking its sweet time at shrinking.

Yeah, but the Japanese problem is a growing labor shortage. They have plenty of jobs for robot techs. U.S. employment is negatively affected by automation because we have a labor surplus.

Eps05:mbillips: TFA fails to explore the effect that automation is having, and will have, on productivity. You don't need as many workers per dependent if the worker is 10 times as productive because of robots.

Except you have half a dozen workers who lose their job and become "dependent" for each technician that remains because robots replaced them.

I'm curious if anyone ever did an analysis of how to sustain economically a heavily automated society, presuming scarcity is still in effect.

A large government with heavy taxes on the rich and a strong downward economic redistribution, to create less extreme income/wealth inequality (which as "capital" becomes more important in the economy naturally tends to concentrate wealth/income into fewer and fewer hands).

Essentially as "necessities" get covered by less and less people in the economy, the boom and bust cycle can become bigger and bigger, unless you have a large government sector that can counteract the swings. Equally redistributing income downwards to people that can't really cut their spending by much when the economy is bad (because most of it is essentials/bills), whereas when the wealth is in the hands of the few they will tend to hoard it automatically when the economy is bad, which is part of the reason the boom and bust cycles tend to become larger.

Nana's Vibrator:fickenchucker: I plan on doing my part for America. I eat what I want, rarely exercise, and drink alcohol every day, oftentimes more than necessary.

Living past 75-80 is a fool's game.

I'd agree somwhat, but somehow mix in "working a crap job for 40 years only to retire and die a measly 5 years later..."

work is for suckers. sling dope on the streets, show no income, reap all sorts of entitlements from Uncle Sam. you'll be driving a nice Escalade dropping off the kids to school in sweet outfits with matching kicks and bling in no time.

I have a real hard time swallowing Figure 3 in the article, where it claims Canada has fewer foreign workers than virtually anywhere else. ??? Have you been to T.O./Montreal/Hongcouver? Hell, there are comparatively healthy communities of immigrant workers in Whitehorse and St. John's.

The only way that chart makes any sense is if you are counting "net migrant workers" (i.e., subtracting out all the Canadian-borns working in the states).

Lawnchair:I have a real hard time swallowing Figure 3 in the article, where it claims Canada has fewer foreign workers than virtually anywhere else. ??? Have you been to T.O./Montreal/Hongcouver? Hell, there are comparatively healthy communities of immigrant workers in Whitehorse and St. John's.

The only way that chart makes any sense is if you are counting "net migrant workers" (i.e., subtracting out all the Canadian-borns working in the states).

I think they're probably using foreign temporary workers. Canada mostly goes with permanent immigration rather than foreign workers. Canada has the highest percentage of foreign born residents of any decent sized country.

I'd rather deal with an asian woman aging than a eastern european woman aging.

In KY most black & white women ripen obviously when they're around 14, then they're over the hill by 30. In fact most are hills by 30. Pumping out 3 or 4 kids might help, as might not getting up off the damn couch to flee. And some of the women are sloppily humongous and have several kids, including a wee infant, which likely means their menfolk have been blind drunk at least twice.

I don't know enough Hispanic people well enough to tell how old the women are, no baseline for comparison, but I can tell you that around here poor white & Latino men age at least as fast as the women. Poor white men age especially quickly when they have a few kids and their wives are humongous, and they're usually skinny themselves -- which might tell you something.

At least Lexington seems good for Hispanic kids: there are quite a few around here and they usually look better kept than their non-Latino age & class cohorts, even the ones in the nearby trailer park slum. If that dump is somehow better than where their people come from I'm all in favor of welcoming them here. The long-term stock is about played out, like I hear it's been in West Virginia for a couple or three generations, because those who are able get out as soon as they can. And the worst find a way to die before age 30 or go to prison for a long stretch, while the most mediocre settle down to breed, praise Jesus, get fat, biatch about the immigrants who take jobs they're too fat & weak to do anyway, and live to a ripe old unappetizing age having been functionally decrepit for the previous 25 years.